On a recent Royal Caribbean cruise, we got a letter in our cabin from Port Valet.  This is a service offered by the Port of Seattle to check-in for your flight, receive your boarding passes, and have your luggage sent directly from outside your stateroom to your home airport.  We didn’t take advantage of this service on our cruise (because we were staying an additional night in Seattle), but it sounds very similar to a service offered by Disney Cruise Line.

The benefits include being automatically checked in for your flights, receiving your boarding passes onboard (except for Southwest Airlines, which must be collected at the airport), and having your luggage transported directly to the airport (and having it arrive at your final destination airport) — all with no service fee!  RCL will even waive any overweight baggage fees!  What is interesting is that there is no transportation from the port to the airport, so you will still have to find your own way to the airport.  If you use this service and have a late flight, you could take time to explore Seattle without having to worry about what to do with your baggage.  Your luggage tags will be delivered to your stateroom the last evening of the cruise before 9:00 pm.

 

To be eligible for the Port Valet service, you must leave the ship between 7:00 am and 9:15 am, your flight must leave after 11:00 am on Friday (or between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm for Southwest Airlines), and you must be flying from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.  You must have a confirmed reservation and flying on one of the following airlines: American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Airlines (Domestic Flights Only), or Southwest Airlines (and only for flights between 11:00 am and 6:00 pm).

Any luggage charges will be added to your onboard account.  There is also space to indicate if you believe you are exempt from luggage fees, something that Disney doesn’t do.  In fact, we don’t use this service on Disney because we get charged for luggage fees despite being exempt from them. 

While we couldn’t use the service on this cruise, we will certainly consider it on future cruises where we would be eligible. 

If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page or our Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Information page, which has useful hints in addition to our cruise trip reports!

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